The Cultural Art of Body Art

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For a long time now body art and decoration has been a custom in many cultural groups. Through research we have learned about the different types of body art and ornamentation such as permanent and nonpermanent tattooing, scarification, and piercings. These forms of body art and ornamentation are done for a variety of reasons, ranging from identification purposes to religious rituals. “Skin, as a visible way of defining individual identity and cultural difference, is not only a highly elaborated preoccupation in many cultures; it is also the subject of wide-ranging and evolving scholarly discourse in the humanities and social sciences” (Schildkrout, 2004). The process of ornamentation and body art is usually a painful experience, but it is a way to signify a person’s self-discovery and their place in society. In this paper, I will explore the different aspects of body art and ornamentation in two different cultures; the Maori people of New Zealand and the Yoruba’s of West Africa and explain the cultural importance of their art.
Throughout West Africa it is not uncommon to come across people that have scar stripe patterns on their cheeks. The facial stripes that they wear are not produced by paint or tattoos, like many other cultures, but only by scarification. However, in his article, Orie explains that not all of the Yoruba people have the facial stripes. Okola is a term used for describing someone whose face is scarred, it means ‘the one with facial stripes’. People that do not have the stripes are referred to as oboro, or ‘plain, not striped face’ (Orie, 2011). While there are many different patterns of stripes worn by the Yoruba people in West Africa, it is always both cheeks that are striped. Most of the time, the stripes...

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...m it is their culture and a sacred tradition of their people.

Works Cited

Nikora, L. W., Rua, M., & Te Awekotuku, N. (2007). Renewal and resistance: moko in contemporary New Zealand. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 17(6), 477-489. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.
Orie, O. O. (2011). The structure and function of Yoruba facial scarification. Anthropological Linguistics, 53(1), 15-33. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.
Palmer, C., & Tano, M. L. (2004). Mokomokai: Commercialization and Desacralization. Significance of Moko and Mokomokai in Maori Culture. International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management. Retrieved from http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-PalMoko-t1-body-d1-d2.html Schildkrout, E. (2004). Inscribing the body. Annual Review of Anthropology, 33(1), 319-344. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.

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